Description:
The Structures Department within the Structural Mechanics Subdivision, Vehicle Systems Division, is seeking a Structures Department Associate Director (Associate Director – Aeronautical and Aerospace Structural Engineering) with a demonstrated record in leadership and a strong foundation in solid mechanics, practical experience in structural analysis, a passion for the space industry, and a desire to apply their expertise to help solve a variety of technical challenges facing national security space programs.
This is a full-time position based in El Segundo, CA., requiring at least 4 days onsite.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Establish department objectives and goals, communicating them effectively to staff, management, and interfacing matrix organizations
- Participate with higher management in determining organizational structure, staffing needs, and resource allocation
- Participate in budget planning and allocation of resources; implement policies, practices, and operating processes
- Identify and assign functional responsibilities within sub-organizations; coordinate work activities and monitor workload, progress, and schedules to ensure completion within allocations and schedule guidelines
- Conduct staff performance reviews and recommend performance improvement, career development, salary, and promotion actions
- Promote a climate of continual learning and mentoring; serve as senior mentor for the development of early career staff by providing technical guidance and insights
- Communicate and coordinate frequently with customers to understand and identify critical needs, milestone schedules, and work progress
- Conduct work performance within customer standards and regulations; participate in day-to-day technical task planning and issue resolution as needed
- Seek and identify opportunities for additional, expanded, and new business; assist higher management in the evaluation and pursuit of new opportunities
- Develop new business connections and motivate technological innovations
- Review and approve technical work, documentation, and briefings intended for release to external customers
- Assess program risks and advise program offices and customers during certification, development, and/or operational phases of programs
- Maintain authoritative expertise in the development, analysis, and verification of space structures, with thorough knowledge of structural design criteria in combination with structural test methods
- Direct technical groups performing engineering design, analysis, and research and development activities related to structural mechanics
- Publish clarification, insight, and guidance on technical topics to assist industry in enhancing mission assurance practices or advancing the state-of-practice in structural verification and validation
Minimum Requirements
What You Need to be Successful
- Bachelor's degree in engineering with a focus in structural and/or solid mechanics or a closely related field
- 10 years of applicable professional and educational experience
- Demonstrated 2+ years of people management skills, including hiring, mentoring, staff development, and administering performance reviews
- Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with customers
- Strong technical leadership skills and a proven ability to build and lead interdisciplinary teams
- Expert knowledge in hardware structural analysis including finite element assessment including the use Nastran, Abaqus, or other commercial finite element tools 
- Willing to travel domestically and to work off-business hours to support customer needs, approximately 20% (as required)
- This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a current and active Top Secret/SCI security clearance issued by the U.S. government.  U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance.